Planning Legal Research

Planning Legal Research

Citation and Description of the Case

The citation of the case is Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L. Ed. 2d. 274 (1969). The defendant of the case was given a death sentence after he was pleaded guilty to a number of robberies. A twenty seven year old African American man named Edward Boykin was given a death sentence after he was found guilty of five armed robberies which were during that time punishable through execution. This judgment was given by a judge in Alabama in 1966. After the sentence was given, the attorneys of Boykin argued in an appeal to the supreme court of Alabama that a death sentence is a cruel and unusual punishment for armed robbery. The appeal was rejected by the court. However, doubts were expressed by the court on the part of the judge. They wondered whether the judge has made the right decision when he accepted the guilty plea of the defendant without interrogating him (findacase.com). Boykin later made appeal to the supreme court of the United States. In 1969, the court ruled a majority of seven to two that an error was made by the judge in permitting the guilty plea without interrogating Boykin. The court stated that the evaluating standards of deciding if the defendant voluntarily or knowingly entered the guilty plea should equal the standards for finding the mental competence of the defendant for standing in trial. Justice William Douglas, speaking for the majority, pronounced that for meeting such standards as abided by the court, the record of the trial must plainly portray that the constitutional rights of the defendant were personally surrendered by him. The decision of Boykin was therefore joined the decisions of Gideon and Miranda in clarifying and expanding the court's responsibility to safeguard the criminal defendants' rights (lawschoolcasebriefs.com). Thus, this reinforced the due process' constitutional guarantees, jury trial and the self-incrimination protection.

Attorney General's Opinions Should be Considered or Not?

The attorney general's opinion in this case was that the death sentence is a cruel and unusual punishment for an armed robber. He made an appeal but this appeal was rejected by the court. As far as it think, the opinion of the attorney general should have been considered as death sentence in fact is a cruel and unusual punishment. The death sentence violates human rights human rights. Nobody has the right to kill, even when following the orders of a state. The international standards on human rights are above the national law. The death penalty is inhuman. Whatever the method, execution pursues only one purpose, to remove a life. The death penalty denies individuals the opportunity to atone for a package, repair, repent and mend their ways (legallynoted.com). Death sentence is irrevocable. Judicial errors and misjudgments can never be totally excluded. Where a sentence of death has been executed, there is no turning back.

Since 1973, in the United States, 123 people sentenced to death have been released after evidence of their ...